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This is NOT MY GUIDE, All credit goes to Kaydeethree. Although its in the "Read before posting" this guide was extremely helpful for me (along with countless others). As we start off the new phase, I thought it would be a good idea to Post Kaydeethree's guide.
1: Copying Characters
2: Downloading and Installing the PTR
3: Running the PTR
4: Patching the PTR
5: Reinstalling the PTR
Copying Characters
In order to do useful testing on the Public Test Realm, QA has given us the ability to copy our own characters or to potentially use premade max-level and well-equipped characters to test on the PTR so we don't have to begin a level 1 character and level it instead of testing. To use premades, your account must have been Burning Crusade-enabled before the PTR opened!
Copying characters is a one-way operation: You will be copying your character from the real server you play on to the PTR, as it was when you last logged out. What you do on the PTR has no effect on your real character on the live realms. Your PTR character and all of its experience, items, and gold will not be getting transferred back to the live realms, either.
To actually copy a character, go to the character copy page and follow the instructions. Make sure you are not playing WoW when attempting to copy your character. Make sure you choose a realm that fits your play style, as there both PvP and PvE test realms.
There tend to be issues with copying characters due to the immense demand that is placed on the servers handling the copies. If you are seeing errors, please cancel out and try again later. QA is usually aware of problems with the copy servers instantly, so please do not flood the forum with character-copy threads.
Downloading and Installing the PTR
Now that your character is hopefully in the process of getting copied over to the test server that you selected, it's time to download the PTR.
The PTR is a special version of WoW that stands on its own from your regular copy of WoW. Go to the download page and select "PC" or "Mac" in order to download the client. Click "PC" if you're running Windows.
MAKE SURE YOU TELL YOUR WEB BROWSER TO SAVE THE FILE INSTEAD OF RUNNING IT!
This is extremely important. The Downloader/Patcher programs only run properly if they are run in the same folder as the Launcher and your copy of WoW.
Remember where your browser is saving the file (common locations will be either on your Desktop or in your Documents folder) as you'll need to move it in a minute. While it's downloading (if it's not already done), fire up Explorer by either clicking on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop, accessing it from the Start Menu, or opening the Start Menu, clicking on "Run...", typing "explorer" (without the quotes) and pressing Enter.
The default location that WoW installs itself to is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft on Windows, and /Applications/World of Warcraft on OS X, but that may not be the case for you. To find out: right-click on the shortcut you use to start WoW, select Properties, and look at the "Target" field in the window that pops up. Get to that folder.
Now that you're in that folder, you should notice "WoW", "Launcher", "Repair" and several other programs and folders. If you see a folder called "WoWTest", rename, delete, or otherwise remove it now. Trying to reinstall the PTR over old data will break things. Once the file has finished downloading in your web browser, move it in to the folder you're in now, extract the program from the .dmg on OS X, and run it.
The PTR should now be downloading using the standard Blizzard Downloader. If you're having issues with the Blizzard downloader, see the support article. Once it's done downloading, click "Finish" to exit the downloader, then get back to the World of Warcraft and run the patch that was just downloaded. Run it with administrator privileges. This will start installing the PTR.
When done installing, the PTR will start automatically. There are frequently many small patches for the PTR required after the initial install. See the Patching the PTR section for details.
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